Location-Based Virtual Interventions: Transcending Space through Mobile Augmented Reality as a Field for Artistic Creation + Interview, Statement, Artwork

Abstract

Location-based virtual interventions provide a new field for artistic creation through the use of augmented reality technology for mobile electronic devices. This field considers the possibility of transcending the physical and territorial boundaries of a real space as axes of a new kind of artistic work which re-conceptualizes urban, rural, public and private spaces in terms of virtual content, and vice versa. In addition, this new configuration of a hybrid space (real/virtual) allows for the questioning of spaces of art legitimation and positions of power, their history and access to them. In accounting for these new possibilities, a description will be provided of previous virtual reality experiences, fixed augmented reality, and the beginning of mobile augmented reality; those will be compared to the current situation of massive mobile devices and ubiquitous services. Taking into consideration the work of international artists and my personal experiences using this technology with aesthetic purposes, I will describe a very recent scenario of electronic arts.